I'm a fairly upset incense maker today. Yes, the issue of another author
plagiarising me is still on-going as my publisher takes the appropriate legal
steps to resolve the problem...but it's still upsetting. I'm upset at this
moment for a completely different reason.
"Herbal incense". That's what I make, that's what I teach others to make,
and what thousands of hobbyists and professional incense makers around the world
create daily. That term has been hijacked by a new, and certain to be fairly
short-lived, industry. People selling herbal-substitutes for cannibis have
chosen this completely FALSE name to market their products. It is a simple case
of "gray market" products attempting to "piggy back" on legal, legitimate
products.
First let me say that I fully support legalizing cannibis. It is a
natural, herbal, gift from Mother that is far less dangerous than alcohol or
other such substances. That's not at all what this issue is about. The sellers
of this material are, in fact, selling a combination of herbs (and often a
variety of chemicals as well) to intoxicate people (almost exclusively minors or
very young adults) with very questionable substances. There are tons of
mind-altering, legal herbs out there and you don't need to go to a "head shop" to
buy them.
A number of states have banned these substances, but in many cases the
producers simply change the banned ingredient to something else and it's
suddenly legal again - until legislatures go back and add the new substance to
the banned list. The simple fact is that NOBODY burns these materials as
incense. They are manufactured, marketed, and sold with the express intent that
they will be SMOKED. Sorry, but that's not "incense" which is defined as
"something burned for its scent". Real incense is never smoked.
Why do I care? Well, for one I am concerned about the safety of those who
smoke these materials. Most are very young and ignorant of what they are
smoking and what it could do to them. Beyond that, I am very concerned about
the long-term impact to legitimate incense makers. At some point, it seems
likely to me that state governments, perhaps even the Federal government, will
start to put bans in place. If those bans are not carefully written, they could
easily result in legitimate incense being banned as well. Throwing the baby out
with the bathwater is an easy solution compared to the challenge of drafting
legislation that would keep our incense legal while banning the crap sold in
headshops for kids to smoke.
To that end, beginning next week I plan to begin writing to my legislators,
both state and Federal, about this issue and the importance of protecting
genuine incense while also protecting our youth from unknown dangers of
unregulated smoking products. Once I have a letter drafted, I will post it for
others to use if they desire. We are a very small industry in America and have
long "flown under the radar" but I now see a huge danger looming on the
horizon. Companies like Juniper Ridge and Fred Sol might find themselves
without products to sell. Companies like Shoyeido, Baiedo, and Nippon Kodo,
might find themselves forced out of North America.
Perhaps it's finally time for our industry to step into the public eye and
speak out against these smoking "incense" companies and make our case before
blanket bans on "herbal incense" begin to
appear.
|
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
A Rising Blight on Natural Incense
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment